THIS BLOG SUPPORT UNIVERSAL DESIGN APPROACH THAT ASK DESIGNERS TO RETHINK SOME FUNDAMENTAL DESIGN CONCEPTS TO SERVE ALL KINDS OF USERS INSTEAD OF AN AVERAGE ONE. UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE DEMAND OF THE DAY, IT HAS ITS ROOTS IN THE CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS AND OTHER SOCIAL, LEGISLATIVE, ECONOMIC CONDITIONS, AMONGST OLDER ADULTS AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. THIS BLOG IS FOR ALL THOSE WHO WANT TO JOIN US IN OUR PURSUIT OF VISION THAT RESPECTS AND CELEBRATES INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Let every one without distinction be happy. Let every one be without any ailment. Let every one look like Arya, noble and righteous. Let there be no one to have any share of sorrow or grief.A Sanskrit shloka from a traditional Indian Inscription with a translation in English

.........."Welcome to the Blog".........

We need your inputs for this blog to build a body of knowledge that would help in strengthening the Universal Design concept in design education and design practice in the country. We would also like to share your related projects or experiences addressing different needs of the diverse population.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Center for Human Centric Research (CHCR) is a multidisciplinary research center at School of Planning and Architecture-Bhopal that aims to

Bring awareness amongst budding architects and planners to respond to the needs of diverse human population otherwise marginalized in the past design practices, for collective socio-economic-cultural development in the country.

Build a research based body of knowledge with all realms of the ethnographic, qualitative and quantitative experimental paradigms, to support human centered design process.

To attain its objectives, the center functions in four major areas, ‘identification of research priority areas and networking’, ‘education & training’, ‘research & design development’ and ‘dissemination’.

I. Identify the Areas of Research Priority and Network all stakeholders (SPA-faculty and students, other Institutes of higher learning, NGOs, government agencies, consumers, users and service providers like engineers, planners, designers, architects and builders) to address these priority areas. This has begun with the formation of a resource group that builds awareness with special lectures, workshops and conferences on the subject. The center recently organized a major three day Universal Design Workshop and a National Student Design Competition on a theme of Inclusive Design/Design for All/Universal Design in March’2011.

II. Establish a National level resource center for Education and Training at School of Architecture and Planning, Bhopal, to facilitate researches addressing people centric studies in the built environment at local, regional and national level. The center offers an elective on ‘Enabling Environment’, and has plans to offer short-term online certificate courses and specialized academic courses in the subject.

III. Initiate and support faculty and student Research and Design Development projects, in the identified priority areas at School of Architecture and Planning, Bhopal. The center supports UG and PG projects/studios on the theme and plans to sponsor faculty projects.

IV. Dissemination through Publications on the subject for information sharing and developing a body of knowledge that would help those architects, engineers, planners, designers and all stakeholders, who would like to work in this area. The upcoming publication of CHCR ‘Uniting Differences’ is based on winning entries of a Design Competition on Inclusive Design.

This site is managed by Rachna Khare, School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, an autonomous institution of Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India. She can also be approached at rachnakhare@spabhopal.ac.inand khare_rachna@hotmail.com